I wish to thank Dave Laney,
CDR, USN(ret.) for supplying the followingarticle concerning the shoot down
of VQ-1 WV-2 on April 15, 1969.CDR Laney was a Plane Commander
in VQ-1 at the time of the incidentand was personally involved with
crew and family members. His personalletter to me is in the MAIL CALL,
Box #2.

I also want to acknowledge Earles
McCaul for the crew list at the bottom ofthis article. Further information
concerning aircraft and crew members canbe found on his comprehensive web
site covering his ongoing and exhaustivestudy of the history of the "Willy
Victors" and finding and listing of formercrew members on THE
WILLY VICTOR ROSTER.

WASHINGTON___ A U.S.
Navy reconnaissance Plane with 31 men aboard was lost Tuesday (April 15,
1969) in the Far East and Communist North Korea claimed they shot it down
"with a single shot at a high altitude."

The White House reportedly told
congressional leaders that two MIG jets shot down the plane.

A massive search for the plane is
under way in the Sea of Japan, 95 miles south of Ch'ongjin, North Korea.

The Pentagon said the aircraft had
orders to fly no closer than 50 nautical miles from the North Korean
coast and that it actually was 90 miles at sea when heard from last.

It was identified as a version of
the Air Force EC-121, four-engine, propeller driven craft loaded with sophisticated
intelligence gathering equipment.

A North Korean radio broadcast said
the plane intruded into North Korean airspace and was downed with one shot
at high altitude, hinting an anti-aircraft missile may have been used.

President Nixon was informed of
the incident by his national security advisor, Dr. Henry Kissinger.
"The president will be kept informed of this matter throughout the day,"
a White House spokesman said.

The North Korean broadcast said
the plane "was reconnoitering after intruding deep into the territorial
air space of the northern half of the republic" when it was shot down.

Ch'ongjin is a port city in North
Korea's northeast panhandle, only about 75 miles from China and 150 miles
south of Vladivostok.

WASHINGTON AP___ A U.S. aircraft searching for the Navyelectronics plane which North Korea claims to have shotdown has sighted debris in the Sea of Japan, the Pentagonreported Tuesday night."This debris could be associated with the missing aircraft,"a Defense Department statement said. "No survivors havebeen reported."

The Pentagon said the plane took
off from the U.S. Navy base at Atsugi, Japan and was last heard from about
seven hours later.

The Defense Dept. statement said
the pilot was under orders to approach no closer than 50 nautical miles
from the North Korean coast. The purpose of the mission was not disclosed.
The statement did not go beyond calling the plane a "reconnaissance aircraft."

The North Korean broadcast said
the plane was downed at 1:30 PM local time Tuesday after a "grave provocation
of infiltrating deep into the territorial air space of the republic."

The broadcast, monitored in Tokyo,
said "the air force unit of our peoples' army ...scored a brilliant battle
success of shooting it down with a single shot at a high altitude..."

The EC-121 is a 300 mph, unarmed
aircraft carrying six tons of electronics equipment. A bulbous dome
on the top of the fuselage houses a special antenna.

The EC-121 crew included 30 Navy
men and one enlisted Marine.

There were three 30 man life rafts
aboard the plane and weather conditions were relatively favorable for rescue
if the men survived.

Seas in the area were described
as moderate with waves about four feet high. Air temperature was estimated
at 42 to 48 degrees with the sea slightly warmer.

U.S. Senate leader, Everett M. Dirksen
told a news conference there had been mention of possible survivors at
a White House meeting. He said legislative leaders were in formed
that two ships, believed to be Russian, were moving toward the spot where
the plane was downed.

Dirksen said the report was that
the plane was shot down by two MIG fighters which had been sighted by radar,
taking off about 30 minutes before the attack.

He said there was no discussion
at the White House meeting of possible retaliation for the attack.

Two U.S. destroyers sailed through
the Sea of Japan to join a search for possible survivors.

A U.S. Navy spokesman at Yokosuka,
Naval Base said the USS
Tucker and USS
Dale were expected to reach the search area around 9 PM.

The Pentagon later said rescue aircraft
reaching the scene ran search patterns and dropped flares during the night
with little success.

A Pacific Stars and Stripes reporter
at Tachikawa AB, Japan, reported that crew members of one of the search
planes said they saw "dim lights" on the sea, but there was no confirmation
of any survivors.

The Pentagon said the search operation
was started by an HC-130 Hurcules plane, accompanied by a HC-135 Tanker, with "combat patrol" protection. This, presumably,meant a flight of jet fighters,
in case the rescue force ran into Communist planes or vessels.

Other Aircraft from Tachikawa AB,
Guam; Clark AB, Okinawa and Iwakuni MCAS in southern Japan were en route
to the search area by daylight Wednesday.

The 5th Air Force Joint Rescue Coordination
Center said a total of 26 aircraft were to be operating in the search by
daylight.

Chairman of the House Armed Services
Committee, Rep. L Mendel Rivers, called for military retaliation against
North Korea with "whatever is necessary."

If nuclear weapons are required,
the South Carolina Democrat said, "let them have it. It's time to
give them what they ask for."

Rivers said the plane was "at least
90 miles off the shores of North Korea. There was no violation of
North Korean territory. There was no hint of provocation."

Rivers said there is "no doubt"
that all 31 men aboard the plane are dead.

"How long will we let a little insignificant
Communist satellite push this nation to the point where we are being laughed
at by the rest of the world?" Rivers asked.

Lost Plane a Pueblo-Type SpyThe Washington Post___Wednesday,
April 16, 1969

By Richard HomanWashington Post Staff Writer

The
U.S. navy plane missing off North Korea is an elaborately equipped eavesdropper
and radar detector packed into the fuselage of a Lockheed Super Constellation
passenger liner. The plane's
radar, sticking out like big warts on the tope of the fuselage, pick up
radar signals another nation uses to warn of an air attack. One of the plane's
radar moves up and down to determine how high the beams extend. Still
others show the direction the radar is coming from so the radar site itself
can be pinpointed. And the radio frequency of the radar___a vital
piece of information___is also picked up. Knowing the
frequency of another nation's radar enables the U.S. to design jamming
equipment to negate its effectiveness in wartime. The missing
plane also carries antennas under its belly___presumably for picking up
military radio communications. Such radio communications
often indicate the state of readiness of another nation's military forces___and
sometimes its future deployments. The USS Liberty,
shot up by the Israelis in 1967, listened in on the Arab-Israeli War, and
the USS Pueblo was seized by North Korea when trying to listen to North
Korean radio and radar transmissions. The missing
EC-121 also would try to pick up Soviet and Chinese communications during
its long patrol. It would be tempting to try to pick up information
about Russian and Chinese fighting along the Ussuri River. The EC-121 is
a modification of the commercial and troop carrier versions of the Super
Constellation, which flew most major airline routes before jets were introduced. Its speed is
300 miles-per-hour and its range is 6500 miles___compared with the 370
mile-an-hour speed and 3500 plus range of the basic Super Constellation. The EC-121 has
more powerful engines than the Super Constellation and it carries wing
tip fuel tanks to allow it to remain in the air 20 or more hours. About six tons
of electronic equipment is packed into the area otherwise used for cargo
or passengers. Special radar equipment is mounted in huge domes protruding
from the top of the fuselage and in sensors trailing from the belly. The flying crew
(pilots, navigators, and flight engineers) of a Super Constellation is
three to five members, but the EC-121 reconnaissance plane carries a crew
ranging from 18 to more than 30. The size of
the crew depends on the electronic tasks involved in the mission. Similar reconnaisance
missions have carried technicians to monitor communications, interpreters
to provide immediate translations, maintenance personnel to keep the sensitive
machinery in working order, a second flight crew for lengthy missions and
sometimes armed guards to prevent intermingling between the flight crew
and the highly classified activities in the intelligence section of the
plane. Because much
of the communication to be monitored follows a line-of-sight track and
does not reach beyond the horizon, airplanes such as the EC-121 have a
decided advantage over ships such as the Pueblo. From their height
of 25,000 feet or more, they can intercept the communications without moving
as close to the foreign shore as a ship must. One role of
the EC-121 reconnaissance flights has been to intercept signals, make a
permanent record of their "electronic fingerprints" and relay the information
to the National Security Agency headquarters at Fort Meade near Washington,
D.C. Through much
of the last two decades, EC-121s, flown by the Air Force from Otis AFB
on the East Coast and McClellan AFB on the West Coast have been used as
an off-shore radar watch that is, in effect an aerial extension of the
North American Air Defense Command's DEW Line___a distant Early Warning
protection against enemy planes and missiles. The plane is
also used routinely in the south east United States for advance hurricane
warning, penetrating storms at 500 to 1000 feet above the water and rising
into the eye of the hurricane, gathering data on wind force and direction.

The above article was submitted
by William B. Leppert.

N. Korea
Claims It Downed U.S. Plane Washington
Post___April 16, 1969

By George C. WilsonWashington Post staff writer

'Spy' Craft And 31 Lost, U.S.
Admits. Hunt Is Pressed For Survivors In Sea Of Japan.

North
Korea claimed yesterday that it had shot down "with one stroke" an American
reconnaissance plane that had intruded into its air space. The Pentagon
took note of the report and said a Navy EC-121 reconnaissance plane with
31 men aboard was missing from a mission over the Sea of Japan off North
Korea's coast. A giant plane
and ship search was launched for survivors. There was no sure sign
of them as of last night, although some debris___possibly from the EC-121___was
spotted. The apparent
downing of an American plane confronted President Nixon with an international
incident grimly resembling the capture of the USS Pueblo by North Korea
last year. However, official
Administration spokesmen refrained from emphasizing the parallels, evidently
trying to damp down what appeared to be a fresh crisis in Asia. The Pentagon,
for example, gave out far fewer details about the missing plane than did
Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen (R-Ill) after a White House briefing.

Senator Dirksen Briefs newsmen on plane incident.

Daniel Z. Henkin, Acting Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, would not confirm that North Korea
had shot down the plane. He said only that an EC-121 "has been missing
since about midnight Monday, EST."
Dirksen, however, said that Henry
A. Kissinger, President Nixon's assistant for national security affairs,
told him that two North Korean planes jumped the unarmed reconnaissance
plane.
"Evidently the radar checks showed
that the MIGs took off a half hour before the attack," Darkness said.
The Senator added that the American
plane "Supposedly" flew no closer than 60 miles to the North Korean coast,
adding: "I am a little hesitant about those figures after the Pueblo."
The EC-121 flew in an elliptical pattern
off the North Korean coast. Dirksen said there had been at least
seven or eight such missions___about two a month.
The Defense Department, in a statement
at 5 a.m. said "the aircraft commander was under orders to approach no
closer than 50 nautical miles to the coast of North Korea."
That statement, by stopping short
of a flat assertion that the plane was that far out at all times, provided
a hedge in case the pilot had strayed off course.

I few on the Atsugi based a/c, namely # 21, 22 and 23, almost once
a week, and several trips working out of Pusan USAF.

I made many trips on the EC 121 which was the shoot down
A/c, and since a number of "CT" folks were working on board
at the time, we consider #21 as a part of our own.

The Summer issue of CRYPTOLOG will feature the shootdown, with
a story, photo and excerpts from "early warning" that suggest
there could have been warning in advance.

I will send you a number of copies of the issue, if you provide
a mailing address. Also I can send you Microsoft Word files
of the stories, in advance by E mail if you wish.

When flying, we had one position which was an "unofficial"
NSA R/D position independent of the other CT work
and
Elint work.

"Rus" was the crew chief we most admired. Since the CTs
were not crew members we had no real instruction and
were frequently the last into parachutes and life jackets
in drills. He kept telling is he had to get us off first and we
were so damn slow we could kill some of his crew members.

Russ and a helper alwas cooked a fine steak for everyone
aboard, when we were on our way home from the
11 hour flights.

My admiration to all the crews:

"Grady" Lewis

EC-121 SHOOT DOWNPrepared for this issue by Jay Browne A modified Lockhead Super Constellation,
designated by the Navy as an EC-121M, prepared to lift off
from theNaval Air Station, Atsugi, Japan. Onboard for the
mission were a total of 31 men, most from Patrol Reconnaissance Squadron
VQ-1, but 9 were from the Direct Support shop at NSGA Kami Seya. The 'scratch'
desk log of VQ-1 recorded the events as the tragedy unfolded:---------------------------------------------------------------------Tuesday
15 April 1969

0659 Deep Sea 129 (PR-21) airborne1344 Condition 3 on D.S. 1291440 Called bird cage to inquire about D.S.
129 - No
info1635 Commander Loeffler will launch a P-3 from
FAN-
6 to the SAR effort.2320 Called Sgt Smith at JRC. Still reports
no visual
sign of life. No voice contact. Two ships are
enroute.---------------------------------------------------------------------Wednesday
16 April 1969

0600 JRC Sgt. Springfield reports no contacts
or
sightings at the scene.0930 Received confirmation on Dusty Mom-01,
sighting
of debris, paper, uninflated life raft, and two Soviet
DD's at position 41d 14m N/131d 50m E. Time
2305 Z.
Confirmation from TAC-314 Major McHave.1000 Dusty Mom-01 relayed to 50971 who relayed
to
tenant control the following. Russian DD picked
up a 20-man life raft. Dusty Mom-01 sighted
possible Mae West, possible man in life raft and
saw
a green flare - time of sighting 0059 Z.1213 Air Force 50971 is going to drop a URC-10
radio
to the Soviet Destroyer side # 580.1535 Air Force 50971 reported to 22713 that
the Soviet
DD #580 departed the area about 0420 Z, speed
approximately 20kts, also said the Soviet DD
recovered what looked to be an emergency exit
door panel and a large section of aluminum.1610 Air Force 50963 from Osan is estimating
rescue
area 0714Z. This plane has a LT onboard who
speaks Russian. Going to drop a radio to Soviet
DD #580.1634 Air Force 50963 established contact with
Soviet
DD #580 this time.1656 USS HENRY W. TUCKER {DD875}, call sign
(Willow), estimates position 41d 10m N/131d 44m
E at 1940 I.1733 From Air Force 50963 to 5th A.F. rescue.
Relayed
details of conversation with Soviet DD #580 as
follows: Contact made at position 41d 16m
N/131d 40m . Ship heading due South - 28 miles
North of crash site. Conversation was made on the
URC-10 radio. Pilot asked the following
questions. Reply was made in broken English "Do
you have any survivors?" - answer "negative."
"Do you have any aircraft parts?" - answer
"Affirmative." At this time the ship said the parts
are on the aft part of the ship. The Russians asked,
"how many were on board the downed aircraft?"
Pilot replied "31 people." Russians asked "are any
still alive?" Pilot replied he didn't know, but they
are still looking. The ship (DD #580) changed
heading to North closing in on the 30 mile limit.
The pilot asked the ship if they had seen any
survivors. Ship replied "negative." 5th Air Force
asked the pilot to drop a radio to #429 who was
South of the crash site.1925 Received the following information monitoring
the
transmission from Air Force 50963 to 5th A.F.
rescue center. At 1745 local time aircraft dropped
radio. At 1810 local ship picked up the radio;
reversed its course from 030 to 210 degrees. Pilot
asked the ship (DD #429) what parts of the plane
did they have onboard? The ship answered giving
the following list:
1. rubber life raft - no size given,
2. cigarette packs,
2. imperial pencils,
1. aircraft seat,
1. mans coat - no name---------------------------------------------------------------------Thursday
17 April 1969

0658 R.I. to Tennant (2156Z), Dumbo-1 spotted
objects
in water. R.I. requesting permission to send
someone to investigate.0818 Cornflower investigating debris spotted
by 713
ragged ovc base 250-300 ft. Vis approx 1&1/4
miles to 2 miles, OC light rain.1009 Bollo Song sighted something, working on
it.1049 Dumbo-3 in area 05, presently investigating
at---
an oil slick with Bollo Song.1113 Ship positions reported as follows:
Bollo Song 4119N/13124E
Willow 4120N/13120E
Cornflower 4156N/13205E
Sea Power 4121N/13339E1526 971 established contact at 1514 with a
Russian
Destroyer number 429. Closing with USS 875
{TUCKER} 7 miles closing slowly and in contact.1534 Willow sending small boat to Russian Destroyer.1558 Willow boat along side Soviet DD.
Exchanging
parts. R.I. directed Willow to, upon completion,
thank 429 for services and rejoin Bollo Song.1626 Willow reported that the following items
had been
received from the Soviet DD, a total of 12 items:
1. life raft, 3. jackets (flying), 2.
seats2. flying suits, 1. seat cover, 1.
Parachute,3. shoes 2. underwear, 1. vacuum
flask, 1. Bag,4. pencils, 1. radio dropped off yesterday
(17 Apr 69)1640 Willow reports raft, a 20-man type same
as
recovered yesterday, 1 white suit case with name
"John A. Miller CTSN" on it, bag securely
wrapped - will open it for further identification.
(NOTE: all previous items were recovered by
Soviets and transferred to Willow)1704 Willow reports bag contained civilian clothing,
no
further info. Flight jackets had no names. Flying
suits appear to be brand new exposure suits.1732 From Rescue to R.I. "Suspend operations
at 0940 Z."1739 R.I. to Rescue, "Request clarify 'Suspend
Ops'."1739 Rescue to R.I., Com 5th A.F. SAR is authority
for SAR
operations. It appears there is no hope for survivors
so SAR operation will be suspended at time
designated.1818 Rescue to R.I., ops will be suspended at
0940Z. We
will remain to assist you in any way.1901 Tennant asked R.I. "How many 20-man life
rafts
have been recovered?" Report was: 1 by Soviets, 1
by R.I., total 2.2336 PR-1 on deck.--------------------------------------------------------------------- Of the thirty-one officers and men aboard
the aircraft only two bodies were recovered. Memorial services were
held at both NAS Atsugi and NSGA Kami Seya.

Editor's note: the above story (in full-text) appeared
in the Summer 1998 (Vol. 19, No. 3) issue of the CRYPTOLOG.

CRYPTOLOG EDITOR;s NOTE: This was originally
printed as a letter to theeditor in a previous issue of CRYPTOLOG.

ROOM 5--EMPTY

Two of the CTs came from NSGA Hakata (across
the bay from Fukuoka, Japan)(also known as US Army Field Station Hakata and Air
Force Hakata AirStation. The two men were CTC Richard :Snuffy" Smith
and, as my memoryserves, CT2 Joe Tesmer, They went TAD to Kamiseya
the day prior to theflight. Concerning the flight. I was on duty in Room
One of the Operationsbuilding at the time of the shootdown. (Morse collector).
Taking a break, Iwas on my way to the snack bar and had to walk past
rooms two through sixbefore intersecting the aisle where the snack bar
was located.The Air Force collectors were in room five. As I walked down the hall and past the AF room
five I heard emergency airtracking coming across an open speaker. I looked in
the room and there weno operators at their positions. None. I immediately
ran back to room one,dialed up the frequency on the "floaters" position
and started copying thetracking. By that time it was too late, although our
P&R shop sent out analert. As to the AF people who should have been at
their positions, they werescattered around the building doing various personal
things. The falloutwas that the 2nd LT and the senior NCO on duty were
reprimanded and Ibelieve, both denied continued service past their
existing contracts. I've always felt that if someone had remained
in room five, our planewould have been alerted and would have broken its
track and headed back toJapan.